"Senior, please listen to me once and then you can kill me." The girl kneeled in front of the cave, crying her heart out.

Aiden exhaled deeply, the sound echoing off the damp cave walls. He flexed his fingers, feeling the joints pop, before lowering himself to the ground. The cold, rough stone pressed against his back as he settled into a seated position, sending a shiver up his spine. The musty scent of the cave filled his nostrils, a constant reminder of his current situation. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts in the dim, oppressive atmosphere.

At least he wasn't in the prison and he could and he would enjoy this new life to the fullest.

"What do you want to speak?"

"I just want to be heard, senior." She sobbed.

"Listen girl, I don't do charity nor I provide a shoulder to cry, so if I don't find your reason plausible I'll kill you, and I mean it." He allowed an icy edge to creep into his voice. He wouldn't play the part of a do-gooder, and he'd end this girl's life if she wasted his time. Her death will give him another Corpse Bloom and he needed only six more.

"I don't want a charity, senior. I came back because I've no friend to speak to. I couldn't even go back to senior Wong's house anymore."

"Are you blaming me for killing him?" He arched his brows as a rotten scent wafted from the depth of the cave. More cleaning was needed to be done, and he was fucking tired of the cleaning. This was a cultivator's world, and there was no fucking cleaning skill he had found yet.

"Then get out of the sect. White Sun City can host you easily." This was a big world, and a city was placed at the base of the sect mountain. At least half a million people lived in that city, and she could go anywhere.

"I can't. Mortals are not allowed to leave the sect, and I don't know anyone out there. I was brought in when I was ten, and after that I worked for three seniors and recently I was assigned to senior Wong's house and you killed him."

Aiden rubbed his forehead. This girl was impossible. He might just kill her already.

"Listen girl, whatever issues you have are not my problem. As long as you do some decent work, you will get a job in the city. So why don't you fucking go away?"

"I can't."

"You are fucking my brain, girl. Give me a single reason I shouldn't kill you."

"Because I'm already dying." She wept.

Aiden sprung to his feet and closed the distance in a few moments. Squatting next to her, he scanned her carefully and there were tales. The blue color he had seen on her arms had spread to her neck and half of the face.

"You are poisoned."

"Yes, that bastard had forced some potion in my mouth before forcing himself on me, and I think it's spreading through me and I won't live for a long."

"I can't help you. I know nothing about this poison." He shook his head. There was nothing he could do to help her.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Can you please talk with me before I die?"

Aiden went back to his position and sat down. "What do you want to know?"

"I want to know why you cultivators behave with us mortals like this?"

"Like how?"

"You don't treat us like humans. You don't care about life, our purity, our self respect. You take us from our homes and put us in the cattle-heard, and then kill us when you don't have a use for us."

Aiden didn't say anything. This was how the world was, and he had no obligation to answer her.

"I was ten years old when a cultivator came and took all the mortal girls from the village and brought us to this sect." She wiped her tears. "Ten of us were put in a cabin smaller than a small room, and we lived there for five years, working in cultivator houses every day as a maid."

"Did you get paid?"

"No. We only received two meals every day, and we had to listen to every command a cultivator had. I've seen many girls getting raped by these cultivators, and many die to their whims. I was fortunate to escape the torture because of my black skin and ugly looks. But it wasn't enough. Senior Wong brought me here after stuffing a potion in my mouth and then…"

"Calm down. It didn't happen."

"Senior, you cultivators could never grasp the suffering of us common folk. Your every desire becomes our duty. You're like deities who can snuff out a regular person's life on a passing fancy, or force yourself on them at the slightest urge."

"Girl, stop there. You can't prove anything here. I'm a cultivator too, and I really don't care about you. Stop annoying me, for god's sake," Aiden said in a cold tone. No matter what she said, it would not affect him. It couldn't be worse than the stories he had heard in the prison. "You are making me regret that I allowed you to talk to me."

"I just want to ask you one thing, senior. Can you please answer me truthfully?"

"Shoot."

The girl took a deep breath, her voice trembling as she asked. "Senior, do you believe in second chances? In redemption? Even for those who committed crimes?"

Aiden froze. It hit a note of his heart. "Why do you ask that question?"

"Do you think senior Wong would get a second chance?"

"I don't know."

"I wonder if there's a hope for us all. For the cultivators like senior Wong who use their power to harm others. For cultivators like you who help others. Or for mortals like us who are trapped in this system of cultivators… who can only suffer. Do you think any of us can start anew?"

Sighing, Aiden leaned back against the cave wall, a bitter chuckle escaping his lips. "Girl, you have no idea what you have asked me."

"You feel the same, senior, right?"

"I don't know about you, but I'm living a second chance," Aiden said, unable to hide the reality from her for some unknown reason. He was holding it inside since he came here, and there couldn't be a better chance than a dying woman.

"I don't understand it, senior."

"I lived in a world where I was deemed as a criminal and locked for ten years, and in the end I was executed in a chemical tank and after spending hundreds of years in the tank, I came here." He paused, pondering how much should he tell her. "Anyway, what I want to tell you is that I'm new to this world, so all you are telling me is completely new to me. I came from a world where slavery was banned from the society and everyone received a minimum wage for the work they did." At least they did before a mad man nuked the world.

"No wonder you didn't hesitate to kill someone."

"I believe in second chances, but I've no qualification to give you a second chance. Maybe in your next life you will get a second chance." He got up and paced toward her.

"Thank you, senior," she said between soft, muffled cries. Her voice quivered with emotion, barely audible over the gentle rustling of leaves in the night breeze. Tears glistened on her cheeks, catching the dim moonlight that filtered through the trees. "I never thought I'd meet someone like you who would give me, a dying woman, a hope." Her words hung in the air, heavy with gratitude and a newfound sense of possibility.

"Are you in pain, girl?"

"Xu Ma. My name is Xu Ma. Please kill me, senior."

"Xu Ma. Beautiful name. I should help you with your final request, Xu Ma." He grabbed a cloth and wrapped it around his palm before grabbing her throat gently and squeezing it enough to end her life.

As Xu Ma's life slipped away beneath his fingers, Aiden pondered the cruel irony of a world where second chances came at the cost of another's first and only life.